A TOP ITV presenter has been forced to pull out of her weekend show at the last minute due to an “unexpected medical procedure.”
They have been rushed to hospital and have told how they will take some “rest” after the operation.
This means Katie Piper, 40, will not front the Katie Piper’s Breakfast Show today.
The Loose Women anchor is a cheery face to welcome in the weekend on the ITV series, which starts at 825am.
She made her reveal in an emotional Instagram Stories post which read: “Back soon.
“Sadly I’m not going to be on my breakfast show this weekend as I’ve had to have an unexpected medical procedure.
“All is well and I hope after some rest I will be back in the hot seat next weekend.”
The show airs every Saturday and Sunday, with Good Morning Britain’s Charlotte Hawkins, 49, acting as a replacement host for today’s episode.
She will welcome former EastEnders actress Maisie Smith to the sofa as well as Diamond from the Gladiators and others.
The Sun has gone to ITV for comment, with the broadcaster confirming to us that Charlotte will again stand in on Sunday.
RAW REVEAL
It comes after Katie candidly admitted how she was told she would “never” have a career in telly.
She suffered a horrific acid attack back in 2009 that left her with severe facial burns.
Katie exclusively told The Sun how it was proving a huge struggle to even bag a representative in the showbiz world after the awful experience.
She told us: “Nobody said: ‘Oh, your appearance is a problem.’ But they told me they couldn’t see anything beyond ‘this’. It was like: ‘It’s terrible what happened to you, but that’s it.’
“It was disheartening. Maybe they genuinely felt that they couldn’t do anything with me and didn’t want to get my hopes up.
“But it was a stark reality of: ‘OK, this isn’t going to be an easy life.’ I know everyone faces rejection, but it was hard.”
She then added: “I’d go into meetings with ideas to pitch and I’d always be met with: ‘How is the viewer going to believe and buy into you being there?’.
“Instead, they would suggest ideas to me like: ‘Katie goes to India and meets other women who’ve had acid thrown in their faces…’ As if that was all I could be interested in.
“I’d see other women my age doing the kinds of things I was pitching. Sometimes I’d challenge it and question why so-and-so was doing it and not me. I’d never really get an answer.”
Katie was 24 and an aspiring presenter with promotional modelling gigs and jobs on digital TV, when she was attacked in March 2008 by an obsessive ex.
He had had arranged for another man to throw sulphuric acid at her in a London street. Both men were later jailed for life.
Katie was lucky to have survived, but her injuries have required more than 400 operations since that day.
HOSPITAL DASH
Last November, Katie was rushed into hospital for surgery to save her eye.
She has an operation on her left eye in a bid to stop her sight from disappearing completely on that side.
At the time, her surgeon has also worked on scar tissue on her right eye, which had caused it to swell.
The year before, she was again sent to the medical ward for an operation on her eye– yet returned to screens just days later.
